Grab a latte and your snapping fingers as we celebrate National Poetry Month at the Tempe Public Library! Tempe Public Library will be hosting an afternoon of local poetry readings in our Connections Café. View the Facebook event and Tempe website for this event.

Shomit Barua received his MFA from Bennington College. He teaches writing at ASU, Mesa Community College, as well as for la Phoenikera Writer’s Guild. His contemporary approach to cognitive spirituality explores humor within the sacred. As a poet, he has collaborated with architects, animators, artists, dancers and musicians.

David Chorlton has lived in Phoenix since 1978 when he moved from Vienna, Austria, with his wife. Born in Austria, he grew up in Manchester, close to rain and the northern English industrial zone. In his early 20s he went to live in Vienna and from there enjoyed many trips around Europe. In Arizona, he has grown ever more fascinated by the desert and its wildlife, and especially enjoys the mountain ranges of southern Arizona, a region that appears frequently in his books which include The Lost River from Rain Mountain Press, A Normal Day Amazes Us from Kings Estate Press, Waiting for the Quetzal from March Street Press, and The Devil’s Sonata from FutureCycle Press. As much as he loves the Southwest, he has strong memories of Vienna, and that city is the setting for his first work of fiction: The Taste of Fog, from Rain Mountain Press. Selected Poems, appeared in 2014 from FutureCycle Press, and his newest collection of poetry is A Field Guide to Fire, his contribution to the Fires of Change exhibition shown in Flagstaff and Tucson.

Jenna Duncan teaches journalism and English classes at Glendale Community College. She is a writer, filmmaker, and hobbyist fashion designer based in Phoenix. She holds a Bachelors degree in Journalism from the University of Arizona (2001), a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing at Goddard College (2007), and a Master of Arts in Media Studies degree from The New School (2010). Duncan currently serves as Associate Editor for JAVA Magazine and contributes articles to Phoenix New Times.

Kitt Keller:

Kitt Keller received her MFA from ASU in 2014. Her work has been seen in Ghost Town, Four Chambers Magazine,Narrative Magazine, and Hoot Review. She lives in a yellow brick house in Tempe, Arizona, where she writes, reads, and collects craft supplies that will absolutely be used someday.

Shawnte Orion is a local poet who co-hosts the monthly Caffeine Corridor Poetry Series in Phoenix. He was featured among Phoenix New Times’ Top 100 Creatives in 2014. He is the author of two books of poetry including The Existentialist Cookbook and Faithful as the Ground. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Georgetown Review, Barrelhouse, Gargoyle Magazine, Crab Creek Review, New York Quarterly, and other journals.